Nearly everyday, we face possibilities and problems that affect our personal and professional lives. The ability not only to cope, but to identify key

Nearly everyday, we face possibilities and problems that affect our personal and

professional lives. The ability not only to cope, but to identify key issues, access

information, and effectively work our way through these situations contributes to

success in whatever we peruse!

Discovery Learning!!!!

Discovery Learning

• A means by which students engage in problem solving in developing knowledge or skills

• Intentional learning through problem solving

1. Guided Discovery

2. Modified Discovery

3. Open Discovery

Levels of Discovery Learning

Guided

Discovery

Modified Discovery

Open

Discovery

Problem Identification

Teacher generated

Teacher generated

Student generated

Process for solving problem

Teacher decides

Student decides Student decides

Establishment of tentative solution to the problem

Student

Determined

Student determined

Student

determined

Discovery Learning

• Benefits– Active learning– Increase student

motivation– Students excited with

being directly involved– Tend to learn more– Tend to retain

information longer– Positive development

of social skills

• Limitations– Inefficient for covering

large amounts of material

Characteristics of Discovery Learning

• Authentic• Requires active student engagement• Interdisciplinary• Some element of student choice• Promotes collaborative learning• Promotes higher order thinking• Encourages learning how to learn• High student motivation

Problem: Who should win the “Explorer of the Century”

Award?

Columbus

Cabot

Cortez

DeCoronado

Magellan

Hudson

Drake

MacKenzie

Ponce de Leon

Developing A Problem Statement

• Select a unit goal to work with

• Create specific learning objectives

• Write the problem statement so that it connected to the students’ daily lives

• What type of project can students make to share their learning?

• Determine an evaluation strategy (what will students do/produce so show they have mastered the objectives?

Students will research individual explorers during European exploration and colonization of the Americas

Students will use case studies of individual

explorers to compare the goals,

obstacles, motivations, and consequences for

European exploration and

colonization of the Americas

Objectives students will be meeting

• Students will research a given explorer

• Students will identify how their explorer contributed to the colonization of America.

• Students will work collaboratively with a partner.

Throughout time, many different explorers have claimed fame for their discoveries. But which explorer was the most important? Your job is to convince a panel of judges that the

explorer you researched should receive the award of “Explorer of the

Century”.

Write the Problem Statement

What content needs to be learned?

• Birth and death date• Reason for Exploration• Country he explored for and why• How he was courageous and independent• How he influenced the beliefs/views of others• 2 interesting facts• Map of the area he explored/paths he followed• Reasons why other explorers should not win the

award

Evaluation Strategy

• PowerPoint Presentation– Persuasive– Share necessary information– Creative and Interesting– Dress up optional!

Developing A Problem

• Select a unit goal to work with

• Create specific learning objectives

• Write the problem statement so that it connected to the students’ daily lives

• Project idea?

• Determine an evaluation strategy

• What content (learning) should be evident in the project?

Create “chunks” that will help guide students in their product creation or performance

In the real world, when we evaluate things, we talk about the specifics of what is right and what is wrong. A baseball coach doesn’t say to his player, “You earned a B today.” He says, “You took your eye off the ball today. You need to concentrate more. You need to change your stance.” The real world is built around giving feedback and showing people what they need to do to improve. And yet in schools, we hand out single-letter grades and think nothing of it.

Designing Rubrics

As assessment tool that measures levels of student achievement on

performance tasks.

2 Types of Rubrics

• Holistic Rubrics– Rating scale– Wide range of

descriptors– One performance

expectation at each numerical level

– Product evaluated as a whole & given a single score

• Analytical Rubrics– Use multiple

descriptors for each criterion

– Points awarded on a criterion by criterion basis

– “teaching rubrics”

Why Rubrics?

• Provides specific feedback- descriptive

• Students can improve the quality of their work

• Guide students through the learning process

• Allow students to evaluate their work

• Plan, revise, edit

Explorer of the Century Criterion

• Research• Description of PowerPoint Slides • Organization • Writing Structure• Mechanics

CriteriaThe student:

0Below theStandard

1Approachingthe Standard

2Meets theStandard

3Exceeds the

Standard

Score

Research Used 2 internet sources. Selected 1 book from the media center

Slides All criteria on checklist is completed

Organiza-tion

PowerPoint has transitions, runs on its own, and is visually interesting & convincing

Writing

Structure

Used complete sentences in all slides. Writing is clear and descriptive.

Mechanics One spelling error OR one capitalization error OR one punctuation error


0Below theStandard


2Meets theStandard

3Exceeds the

Standard

Score

Research Used 2 internet sources. Selected 1 book from the media center

Used more than 2 internet sources OR selected more than 1 book

Slides All criteria on checklist is completed

More than 13 slides are completed OR slides go beyond requirement

Organiza-tion


PowerPoint includes all elements plus extra graphic effects

Writing

Structure


Language and writing goes beyond expectations AND is very descriptive

Mechanics One spelling error OR one capitalization error OR one punctuation error

No errors in spelling, capitalization or punctuation


0Below theStandard


2Meets theStandard

3Exceeds the

Standard

Score

Research Used 1 internet source OR did not select a book from the media center

Used 2 internet sources. Selected 1 book from the media center


Slides Most of the checklist criteria is met.

All criteria on checklist is completed


Organiza-tion

PowerPoint has few transitions OR is somewhat visually interesting OR has timing errors



Writing

Structure

Used complete sentences some of the time OR writing is unorganized



Mechanics Two spelling errors OR two capitalization errors or two punctuation errors

One spelling error OR one capitalization error OR one punctuation error



0Below theStandard


2Meets theStandard

3Exceeds the

Standard

Score

Research Did not use given sources

Used 1 internet source OR did not select a book from the media center



Slides Several slides do not meet checklist criteria in number of slides or content.

Most of the checklist criteria is met.



Organiza-tion

Transitions are missing/confusing OR doesn’t run on its own OR is not interesting or convincing




Writing

Structure

Did not use complete sentences. Writing is unclear and causes confusion.




Mechanics Three spelling errors OR three capitalization errors, or three punctuation errors

Two spelling errors OR two capitalization errors or two punctuation errors




0Below theStandard


2Meets theStandard

3Exceeds the

Standard

Score

Research Did not use given sources

Used 1 internet source OR did not select a book from the media center



Slides Several slides do not meet checklist criteria in number of slides or content.

Most of the checklist criteria is met.



Organiza-tion

Transitions are missing/confusing OR doesn’t run on its own OR is not interesting or convincing




Writing

Structure

Did not use complete sentences. Writing is unclear and causes confusion.




Mechanics Three spelling errors OR three capitalization errors, or three punctuation errors

Two spelling errors OR two capitalization errors or two punctuation errors



Creating your Analytical Rubric

• Follow guidelines in checklist

• Start with “Meets the Standard”

• What indicates going above and beyond?

• What indicates being almost there?

• What indicates below expectations?

• For next time, student direction sheet, student checklist, rubric,

Documents

Nearly everyday, we face possibilities and problems that affect our personal and professional lives. The ability not only to cope, but to identify key